“The real question is, why does London (or any major city) need a £150,000 mayor anyway, wasn't it a Tony Blair invention?”
Indeed Khandro. The very question I was going to ask had you not raised it. Mrs Thatcher went to great lengths to abolish the GLC and life went on quite well as before. (In fact some would argue it went on that much better because there was no longer three-way political strife between the Government, the GLC and London Boroughs). There is thus absolutely no need for a Mayor and assembly.
“There was a 1998 referendum in London asking if folk wanted a London assembly and a Mayor. The vote was 72% in favour.”
Indeed there was. I remember it as if it was only yesterday. One thing I also remember was that the referendum attracted a pathetically low turnout and now I’ve looked it up I see it was just 34%. Using some of our resident Remainers "four-fifths of five-eighths of F-all" that means a mayor and assembly was the choice of less than one in four Londoners.
As I recall, the emphasis was not on an assembly at all. Despite the question on the ballot paper the campaign focussed on “an elected mayor” and made comparisons with the then Mayor of New York, Rudolph Guiliani who made quite a difference to that city by his own personal philosophies and interventions. Politicians, of course, love councils, assemblies, parliaments, and the like. It gives them more strings to their bow so that when they (inevitably) get voted out of one forum they can swiftly stand for election in another. The more the merrier. The tragedy is that because of that it is unlikely in the extreme that London voters will ever again be asked whether they want an unnecessary mayor and assembly. In fact, even if they are asked and they happen to return the “wrong” answer, they will be ignored. Convolutions will follow to ensure that the gravy train will continue down the track, sucking in vast sums of taxpayers’ dosh as it goes, for very little benefit:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-mayoral-election-candidates-2017-12521146